Information on COVID-19

Postponement of deadlines & calls, and cancellation of events due to the COVID-19 crisis

SNF open calls and deadlines

Due to the current COVID-19 situation the submission deadline for the SNF project funding call has been postponed to April 8th, 2020, 5pm (swiss local time). Rolling information is available on the Website of the Swiss National Science Foundation .

Innosuisse

Innosuisse supports its clients by providing simple and unbureaucratic solutions so that innovation projects can, if possible, continue without interruption. Learn more about the latest changes. Read more

HORIZON 2020 open calls

All submission deadlines until 15 April for calls in Horizon 2020 will be extended. The new deadlines for the individual calls will be published on the EU Funding and Tenders Portal.

Participants in running HORIZON 2020 projects

Concerning EU projects, the legal and financial helpdesk of the EC has published the following information:

Article 51 of the Horizon 2020 Model Grant Agreement (H2020 MGA, page 347) sets out the general framework and conditions in which the force majeure clause can be used. As a rule, under Horizon 2020, in case of force majeure, a party will be excused from not fulfilling its obligations (i.e. there will be no breach of obligations under the GA and none of the adverse measures for breach will be applied). Costs will be eligible, if they fulfil the general eligibility conditions like any other costs incurred under the action. However, if force majeure entails extra costs for the implementation of the action, it will normally be the beneficiary who must bear them.

Indeed, the outbreak of Corona virus in the EU and elsewhere may have implications for the participation of individuals in meetings and events organised by beneficiaries for the purposes of H2020 ongoing actions and for their implementation. For instance, it may prevent beneficiaries to fulfil their obligations under the action or even to carry out work in a zone affected by the virus. It may also force beneficiaries to cancel a meeting due to unavailability of key staff or because most of the participants cannot attend.

If such a situation occurs, beneficiaries must immediately inform the Project Officer, who will examine on a case-by-case basis the possible application of the rules on force majeure, in the meaning of Article 51 of the H2020 MGA.

Example: If beneficiaries cannot attend a meeting related to the action because of their recent contact with someone suffering from the virus or their presence in an area considered to be at high risk, then the costs of travel or accommodation that could not be cancelled and which are not reimbursed from other sources could be eligible even if the beneficiary did not travel and did not take part in the meeting/event. The usual cost eligibility conditions still need to be fulfilled (i.e. the meeting was necessary for the action, the costs were reasonable and in line with the usual practices of the beneficiary on travel)

For further questions please contact the Grants Office.

swissuniversities

Due to the current situation, Swissuniversities has decided to extend the deadline (31.3.) for submitting applications under the "Cotutelles and Doctoral Partnerships" programme: New deadline for submission of applications: 15 April 2020. Read more

COST open call

COST has postponed their Open Call by 6 months, to enable researchers and innovators the necessary time to develop their proposals during this difficult period. The deadline for submissions will now be 29 October 2020. A designated page on the COST website has been created and they are regularly updating our Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook channels. Read more